By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

Food ran out on Sunday morning in the home of 9-year-old Joanne.

Father had abandoned the family after Mother started attending the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the U.S. state of Oregon. Father, who had immigrated with the family to the United States from South Korea, made it clear that he would never help them.

“If you choose God, let your God feed you”, he said. “Let your God clothe you”.

Mother, who didn’t have a job, prayed and cried in her bedroom that Sunday.

When lunchtime came, Joanne’s younger sister complained forlornly, “I’m hungry”. Her older brother sat stone-faced, trying to be brave even though he was helpless. Then Joanne remembered reading in “Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories” about children who prayed and received help from angels.

“All we have to do is pray!” she exclaimed. “’Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories’ says that if we pray, the angels will bring us food. Let’s pray!”

Brother rolled his eyes. Little Sister complained again about her hunger. Joanne didn’t know how to pray.

“Hello God”, Joanne said. “We are really hungry. ‘Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories’ says that You can send us food, so would You send us something to eat, please?”

The children waited. No food. Hours passed, and dinnertime came. Joanne thought, “What’s wrong? God is late!”

The children grew hungrier. Mother continued praying and crying in the bedroom.

Then Joanne said, “Oh, I know what we did wrong! God doesn’t think that we believe Him because we didn’t set the table”.

She told Little Sister to fetch metal chopsticks from the kitchen. The children set the table and sat down.

“Sorry about that, God”, Joanne prayed. “We probably did it wrong. Could You send us some food now? We’re ready!”

But nothing came. The children climbed into bed disappointed and hungry that night.

Early in the morning, they woke up to go to school. They had no food for breakfast and no money to buy lunch.

“Don’t bother, Mother”, Joanne whispered. “She is still praying and crying”.

The children opened the front door to leave the house, but their path was blocked – by a huge box filled with food.

Excitedly, the children called Mother to the door. Mother couldn’t believe her eyes. Joanne was overjoyed.

“The angels were just a little late!” she said.

That was the moment when Joanne knew that God lives and that He hears and answers prayers. Joanne Kim (née Park) is now the mother of her own four children. She and her husband, Jon, a dentist, are missionaries in Mongolia.

After the food miracle, Joanne, pictured left, is convinced that angels are Korean.

“I will tell you today that angels are Korean”, she said. “The food that they delivered was all Korean – everything you need to make rice, kimchi, and seaweed soup”.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/7lQ0clOQO4o/

Further Thought: 

Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation”, pages 44-51, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

“‘God is love’. … His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. ‘The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’ whose ‘ways are everlasting,’ changeth not. With Him ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’. …

Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings”. – Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 33.

“If men would do their duty as faithful stewards of their Lord’s goods, there would be no cry for bread, none suffering in destitution, none naked and in want. It is the unfaithfulness of men that brings about the state of suffering in which humanity is plunged … God has made men His stewards, and He is not to be charged with the sufferings, the misery, the nakedness, and the want of humanity. The Lord has made ample provision for all”. – Ellen G. White, Welfare Ministry, p. 16.

Discussion Questions:

Look carefully at the last Ellen White statement above. What is she saying? Who is she saying is ultimately responsible for so much of the poverty we see? What should this tell us about the importance of faithful stewardship? After thousands of years of the brokenness caused by sin, how possible is it for us still to see the goodness of Creation? As people who believe in the Creator God, what can we do to help others see the goodness of His creation? What do you understand by the word stewardship? Has anything in this week’s lesson expanded your thinking about what it means to be a steward, particularly as we are called by God? How might it change the way we relate to and treat others if we were to see a sign on every person we met that reminded us that this person is “created by God in His image and loved by Him”?

Summary: 

God created a good and complete world, and He appointed human beings, created in His image, to “tend and care for” His creation. Though sin broke the relationships that God had originally intended for us, we still have a role to play as stewards of the goodness of creation and caretakers of our fellow human beings. Fulfilling this role is one way we can honor God as our Creator.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SabbathSchoolNet/~3/XG318PDpT_o/